politicians the far left leaders. very soon after the speech saying not enough concessions were made to those who are struggling to the poor and there's also the sense that emanuel might color didn't address some of the issues that have to do with the wealthy in this country because the protesters say the wealthy have too many tax breaks and mark or did not reinstate a wealth tax which has been a very unpopular move indeed that all says we need to encourage the wealthy to be in france because of infests mint but many protesters say that simply him and all my living up to his reputation of being the president of the rich. what about persia and all of this emotional speech on television doesn't mean that those in. no indeed and many of the yellow vests protesters have said look we're going to continue to get back out into the streets and i mean look it's no surprise really because you have such a variety of people in these protests those who are just determined to continue many who dislike the policies and politics of man or mark or any way and are

perhaps supporting other opposition parties and this is a good opportunity for them as well to be in the streets and and against this government and president but would it matter what i wanted to do was really try with this speech to appeal to the more moderate supporters those who might be swayed in the many people who are at home who aren't necessarily in the streets but support the movement because they also feel that they're struggling a bit so i think the idea is to try to appeal to them and hope that at some point you'll be able to move forward and negotiate better i mean whatever happens he wants to just stop the violence on the streets i mean it's ruining his reputation putting his own presidency in peril you might say and he wants to find some sort of way of negotiating but is going to be very hard for him at all mark or you'd have to say in the future because he wants to keep rolling out all these ambitious reforms and right now if each time you have protests like this and he's going to have to bow to pressure it could be very difficult for him to continue with his

agenda the talks about what they are get from paris thank you. thailand is to hold a general election on february twenty fourth next year after postponing the vote five times already it will be the first nationwide elections since the military seized power in a coup four years ago and banned all political activity the army says it's now lifted its ban as election campaigning begins rights groups concerned about fairness of the whole process. but we've got to dominate folder with us now an associate editor with the nikkei asian review joining us from bangkok nice to see you with us i know it's a gradual process step by step these restrictions being lifted as we move towards the idea of an election in february but these are important democratic steps. they are indeed the day it was formally announce there was a lifting of the ban on political activity that's been going on since the last four

years. painting can begin early january on the second this is a step forward as you said being five perspire months of this long promised general election and i think it's worth pointing out that this government if the election goes through on the twenty fourth will have been in power for four years nine months which is longer than any i like to entire history prime minister taksin should have had a four year term and then he won reelection and there was a complicated series about some of that culminated in a coup so he actually ruled for longer as an elected politician but as a term this is longer than a thing. in elected history come on to say though that the first thing that i think about when you think about an election and a result and a democratic government being elected you start to think about when the next who might be because that is the history that thailand has then and i think it has to be said it does struggle with democracy. that's true

to attempted coup in since one third to thirteen of which have succeeded was an incredible record of coups. in the eighty's people believed that they were a thing of the past and there were there were two of. them we had one in ninety one in two thousand and six two thousand and fourteen so the tie system is having great trouble shaking this military desire to intervene in politics and to put things right now in two thousand and fourteen when john general. took over. there was a state of our nearest you could say that there was a need to bring order to a politically unstable situation and there was also the issue of the approach. succession. and order was restored in the succession most successfully completed i think the big concern amongst people is the reluctance of the military to step back

if you set aside the issue of whether or not it's going to be another coup you have to look at the issue of military interference going forward and that is the fact that the military has complete control of the senate which can function as a kind of super cabinet in a time of crisis and take over from the like cabinet and you have to look at the situation of the prime minister. maneuvering to become prime minister again in a different system and that system may prove to be unstable because he will no longer have an appointed cabinet of cronies generals he will have elected politicians sitting in that and that is fundamentally potentially destabilizing as we found in one thousand nine hundred two. in the news ahead on al-jazeera reaching the united states any way they can central

american asylum seekers resort to some desperate measures and it is ruling party faces a litmus test ahead of crucial nationwide elections next year. hello it's become dry in the philippines of the last twenty four hours not just twenty four hours most of the rain has been further south further west particularly in sumatra but it's in malaysia again has been pretty wet and that's lining the road and smarter and interestingly long way east as well just south of so the way sea east of java as well now much of this part is generally speaking dry borneo in the philippines and lastly for as i said but in the next not so showers a reforming in the philippines they re forming in this part of indonesia but the thick green line the persistence of the rain is still here so you calle singapore

and further north in a coastal area when the islands the east of a sudden talents all been pretty wet recently and as you can see the showers could repeat and serves but the thrust is for and it should be this time yeah i mean australia more excitements now tempers about to go up again in melbourne as another front on its way through those were lost most of the action as you well know the stormy weather the flooding has been in queens and and now sitting in the gulf of carpentaria a protect potential redevelopment of the cyclon that we saw in the car will see more in the way he care anyway his thirty in melbourne twenty nine adelaide let's run the front through and tomorrow you're down to twenty. a reporter's retreat in a brutal civil war if the commodore had been the israeli invasion would not have been so well. the commodore had become a journalistic center you could be in

a safe enclave and then you went into civil war i started off leaving this suite at the commodore hutto the next room i was in was underground in a tiny prison so as a hostage beirut the commodore war hotels on al-jazeera. top stories for you this hour here on al-jazeera and the european commission president jiang put young says there is absolutely no room to renegotiate the break that deal british prime minister to recently is meeting european leaders try to salvage that unpopular agreement and leave the block. france's president is

promising to raise the minimum wage and cut taxes but some demonstrators say it's concessions don't go far off this was his first national address since the yellow vest rallies began last month and a man you're micron did say he shoulder some responsibility for the aca the thai government is lifting its ban on opposition parties for a general election next year been repeatedly postponed a nationwide poll will now be in february the first since the military coup four years ago. u.s. agents have arrested thirty two people during a rally at the border separating san diego from to. about three hundred demonstrators and religious leaders knelt down in front of guards to call for an end to the detention and deportation of asylum seekers most were arrested for trespassing. but thousands of central americans living in camps on mexico's northern border are not giving up hope of reaching the u.s. and to climb the border fence and then claim asylum once arrested on the other side order of the army met one family trying to do just that and he honna. if

anything mexico's northern border is a symbol of inequality on one side a world of privileges and on the other stories of people in search of an opportunity. this family from el salvador came first in the early morning to check to situation climbing is not easy. the boys are petrified and one shouts don't hurt my mama oh my papa. was a lucky punch trying in eyesight of the american border patrol flood lee path as they failed and finally walked off exhausted. this part of the wall was built nearly twenty five years ago during the clinton years it's been fortified by seven administrations since the razor wire was added a few weeks ago. if the heavy presence of the american border patrol is meant to be

a deterrent it's not working these young men jumped over in a matter of minutes they have nothing to lose for about an hour later another group arrived killing maldonado left honduras with her twin daughters along the way she became friends with and her three children they're relying on each other to take the leap across the border killing was hesitating at first she told her daughter she was risking so much so they could get an education. but then. it goes very quickly the men first then one child another and yet another it's now the turn of kenyan an elder. it's too difficult the border patrol has already surrounded those who jumped. right. it's too late for them one of kellin daughters sneaks back through the bars she pushes her

back into the united states a desperate gesture by an anguished mother who has little to offer when. i have to go to my children she keeps on repeating as a border guard carries them away the rest of the group has also led the way to tame but now they have the right to claim asylum. that is in pain and wonders what will happen to her eighteen month old baby she was still breastfeeding can we ask where the children spend the night i don't know is d.n.c. . then it's slowly sinks in the children are in the u.s. but killin are still in mexico separated by the war they will try again and again this time in search of their children held somewhere in america without that hammy al-jazeera along mexico's dourdan border. india's ruling party b j p is facing an

uphill task to retain power in three major states as votes are counted in regional elections the opposition congress party is set to win this gar and in rajasthan and the two parties are also locked in a close race in their pradesh local elections seen as a popularity test for the b j p before the national elections next april or spoke on the charlie a little bit earlier who is the dean of the jindal school of international affairs new delhi italy's prime minster modi's party must focus on reviving the economy and move beyond populist policies. in political science we call it you know of our pocketbook warding and so should profit voting and india is an interesting combination of both i mean people are looking at what kind of record has that we give people just ruling in most of the states in india as well as of the central government under mr moore the what have they given ours in terms of you know economic benefits and development and infrastructure but on the other hand there is the old india which is you know based on caste and those are often actually hurt

that we give you more because you find that you know that i want to be of india the bigger piece slogan is always going to unite the country under you know a nationalistic banner under mr modi is leadership sometimes that needs to grasp the ground realities which is far harsher and less idealistic but nonetheless i think between now and the general elections the prime minister has a star card out he will need to go beyond the you know welfare is among the populism and talk to a bigger picture of all how india is rising and how the people need to see him for five more years at least to be able to carry through on the promises he began with some of these states which they are losing today must mention i have known for fifteen years at the provinces so you know innovate change is inevitable in democracy and maybe it's good and it's i think necessary wake up call before the big elections coming up for the national parliament in a few months or workers in gaol and have begun a three day strike to protest layoffs at the french oil producer total the union

that stage the walkout says only some of those five got their jobs back to spite demands that they all return to work in july governing the workers went on strike asking for higher pay and better working conditions across the state fall in oil prices forced many companies to lay off thousands of workers. a pregnant girls in tanzania being forced to abandon their education president john michael hooley says a law which bans teenage mothers from returning to public schools must be strictly enforced catherine soy has our report from the northern region of. which has the country's highest teen pregnancy rates. of man i history lesson on a hard dusty afternoon in a gap it open knowledge school the nonprofit sentencing younger rescues girls from early marriages and shelters pregnant teenagers it's even more important now after the government enforced a policy banning teenage mothers from going back to public schools when their babies born. sixteen year old sophia has

a twelve month old baby she says she was raped by a brother in law a teacher who has since gone into hiding after she went to the police. after the incident i told my sister his wife or she would not believe me she started mistreating me beating me saying i must have been promised your jacqueline is seventeen years old and six months pregnant she says she was attracted to the baby's father by his generosity. he give me money and gifts. i could not bring myself to ask my parents because they don't have much money and they are burdened with taking care of my other five siblings government statistics estimates there were nearly seventy thousand teenage pregnancies in twenty sixteen she younger has the highest rate in the country president cream not to allow pregnant girls to return to school highlights the skill not only of teen pregnancies but also child marriages they account for more than thirty five percent of all weddings nationally

this is not a new policy there is an existing law on next felling teenage girls who get pregnant and school and up to thirty years for those who get them pregnant but that law is not strictly enforced human rights campaign as we talked to said the president's directive rolls back the gains that have been made in ensuring that girls remain in school. girls are allowed to go to vocational centers or private schools after birth but these few nonprofit once sat as a copy and others are too expensive for many. we had made good progress with the ministry officials toward working out of a more middle and outside girls to go back to school the presidential degree means those plans are now on. some human rights campaigners say women's rights laws in tanzania are vague conflicting and discriminatory we have kargil have a tradition we have practices and to have laws. what is the best foot and.

gets. in terms of education i think that is an area we have to see should we see and revise our. policies and i want all those to me i won't say here is sitting pensively on has school desk back in session younger sophia tells us if she could have a charter the president should tell him that she didn't want to become pregnant she was raped and she deserves a second chance catherine so she younger northwest. headlines here on al-jazeera the european commission president says there is absolutely no room to renegotiate the break that deal which is prime minister tourism a meeting european leaders are if she tries to salvage that unpopular agreement the

bloc u.k. parliament also due to hold an emergency debate after may postponed a vote on the deal on monday. the deal we have achieved is the best possible only the course and so we can look. there is no room. for the negotiation but of course to this will if used totally is rooted enough to give further clarification and further interpretations we vote openly do we have to all agree to this look happen everyone has to look at the really really really not. another news france's president is promising to raise the minimum wage and to cut taxes but some demonstrators say is concessions don't go far enough in this first national address since the yellow vests rallies began last month emanuel said he does that some of the responsibility for the anger the thai government's lifting its ban on opposition parties for

a general election next year voting has been repeatedly postponed and the nationwide poll in february the first since the military coup of four years ago india's ruling party the b j p is facing defeat in two major states as votes are counted for regional elections the opposition congress party is set to win in charters guard and in russia stand and in minor pradesh the two parties are locked in a close race as well these polls seen as an indication of the b j p support ahead of national elections in april or may of next year and oil workers in bonn have begun a three day strike to protest layoffs at the french oil producer total the union that stage the walkout says only some of those who were fired actually got their jobs back despite demands that they all return to work in july japanese oil workers went on strike asking for higher pay and better working conditions a steep fall in oil prices has forced many companies to lay off thousands of

workers. paid as along with a news hour in half an hour next though on al-jazeera war hotels. the war on drugs in the philippines is pushing jails to breaking point a record number of inmates languish behind bars for years awaiting trial one on one east philippines locked up on al-jazeera. the commodore hotel was safe and then you went out into a very grave civil war. kind of a commodore there's a mob beat us off the old lockers debate. hall. if the commodore hadn't been there the israeli invasion would not have been

so. like. it was a great new center and overall was this godfather of the journalists use of an asylum. the next room i was in was underground in a tiny filthy dirty prison cell basically as a hostage. we've .

had. welcome to nine hundred sixty s. beirut. for several decades this cosmopolitan city attracted international jet setters who could get from the ski slopes to the beach in no time. the hotel district was at the heart of its a luxury tourism economy and in its heyday hotels like this and george the funny sure on the holiday inn were full of wealthy tourists businessman journalists diplomats and the occasional spies. travelers on a tighter budget stayed at hotels like the commodore and in the mid one nine hundred seventy s. it became host to the world's media when the lebanese civil war erupted. in one nine hundred seventy a young arab millionaire use of took the commodore hotel on a twenty year lease from the kuwaiti royal family. in the zone was

a leading investor in the hotel industry in the region and responsible for attracting thousands of tourists to lebanon. mohammed should borrow worked with ms allen ticketing and still runs a travel agency near the commodore with the same name. but that violin the focus of the verb if on the record or one of the brain develops. them up but of course the. fundamental cut off on the atlantic. or cannot affect the telephone or the offer. but the luxury beirut lifestyle obscured the gap between rich and poor that was white me all the time. the international press used beirut as a barometer of what was happening in the middle east. and one of the foreign correspondents who predicted the violence in lebanon was our t.v.'s jonathan

dimbleby. i first went to lebanon in nine hundred seventy two as a young reporter and i wanted to see whether something was happening there or not i stayed in what was then relatively modest hotel called the commodore hotel the overall impression was of some something some society which was held together by a rather loose series of ropes and it didn't take much for that to. shatter. the thirteenth of april one thousand nine hundred seventy five mile to the official start of the civil. it was a proxy conflict for during the cold war. on one side never unease christian right wing parties backed by the us wanted to end the armed palestinian presence in

lebanon. on the other one muslim left wing parties allied with the p.l.o. and backed by the soviet union they saw the right wing christians as simply an extension of israeli and american influence in the country. when the war broke out an army of foreign journalists headed to beirut including the former b.b.c. middle east correspondent tim llewellyn all of whom wanted a safe place to stay. in november one thousand nine hundred seventy five i was taking what turned out to be one of the last n.e.a. flights into beirut from london which was virtually empty except for a few journalists and use of massaro who i didn't know but of course it was them it was to turn out that he was the manager of the commodore. so he drew me he took out a piece of paper and

a pen and he drew from me the various sections of beirut who controlled what where you could go safely i said the use of what we needed was a base the next time i went to beirut. use of it created this fantastic hotel in the space of a few weeks the commodore had become that journalistic center. nine hundred seventy five in seventy six with the fiercest two years of the civil war with sectarian killings massive destruction and the division of beirut into the christian east and muslim west. the former times correspondent robert fisk decided to base in self permanently in beirut in one nine hundred seventy six. so when i came to bear i already knew the city but i knew it before when i went downtown here i could not believe the extraordinary destruction i mean it takes you can destroy a city very quickly if it's an awful long time to rebuild it. i

casually went to the commodore with a piece stuff just to have lunch sometimes for me other journalists but i didn't stay there i didn't like it very much when i thought it was another seedy hotel with extraordinary high prices the commodore hotel was safe and so you could be there and it was quite bizarre really you could be in this it'll save enclave and then you went out into a very grave civil war. and the use of management the beirut commodore became a global center for news and information. for years and as i was a young man then and he seemed to have an extraordinary uncanny ability to know what journalists wanted and he realized quickly and brilliantly that the

journalists would need first of all all above. good communications what the commodore had and what no one else had was communications and you know if a journalist has a story and he can send it he might as well go home and you had three working tax machines and they could get your call to london. use if desired started by using lines and tell its machines from his private business in beirut's london a man and cyprus but as reported demands grew he had to get hold of extra lines at any cost. at this a lot. of. the follow up on one. or. forward is that. you are for both suffer. alone.

as the war spread the militias took control of different neighborhoods the challenge for the commodore was to keep the hotel safe for its media guests. i was there on one occasion. when we were down in the bar and suddenly there was a fantastic noise of gunfire from inside the hotel everyone ducked down i'm ok you know everyone was on the floor and the better like that stopped silence the only sound was of the parrot which had a peculiar position on the edge of the bar and the parent. talked quite freely while everyone else a sandwich made you half you know and in when you're in when you're frightened you wanted to laugh it wakes this funny squawking parrot was going on talking. the african parrots name was coco and his party tricks became legendary. this parrot

used to do various things you could do the opening notes of beethoven's fifth symphony and various other things but it's b.s. the resistance was to imitate an incoming show. on the sixth of june one thousand nine hundred eighty two israel invaded lebanon. israel claimed it wanted to take out the p.l.o. the rocket launcher positions but there was more than that to the israeli action. these. really siege of beirut was one of the bloodiest episodes of the whole sorry conflict. the destruction was enormous and twenty thousand lebanese and palestinians were killed and nearly fifty thousand wounded. amid the mayhem the commodore hotel became the de facto ministry of information.

lebanese photo journalist ramzi hyder was at the commodore during the israeli invasion. but. given this so there's a. bus. in the early days of the israeli invasion of lebanon use of stockpiled large amounts of fuel food and cash millions of dollars he said enough for the hotel residents and stand for the months to come. also lent journalists money.

money. flows better. life for the commodore base journalists joining the invasion was tough. west beirut was under siege with constant israeli air raids and reportedly indiscriminate shelling. but they told the real story. i think the siege of a set was a big eye opener for many correspondents who only in the israeli story been told them. and they were able firsthand when they went out to see the suffering of lebanese and palestinians and they really went after the story very very hard very hard and harshly and well. i think at that stage though if the commodore hadn't

been there the israeli invasion would not have been so well reported and you can fact the commodore in a way for this and the people in it under years of i think the the israelis had at that stage in the early eighty's the worst press they've ever had before or since. the seventy day israeli siege of beirut was lifted on the twenty first of all because one nine hundred eighty two and the p.l.o. pulled out of lebanon. there were immediate presidential elections and the leader of the right wing christian phalangist split share gemayel who had supported the israeli incursion became the president elect of lebanon and then. gemayel never took office he was assassinated twenty three days later.

for the following three days the sixteenth seventeenth and eighteenth of september one thousand nine hundred two christian militias supported by israel took part in a massacre at the palestinian refugee camps of sub or a and shatila. when news of the massacre reached the commodore hotel on the eighteenth dozens of local and foreign journalists headed straight to the southern beirut suburb robert fisk was one of the first to enter the palestinian camps. i've never before had to walk on carpets of dead bodies in my life and the smell was appalling and we went on the sunday morning when the car type the financials were still there the motors were still still in the camp. was back in the air and one of the nestle our own was the subject of the them. well my dear governor i can remember commodore ian who are you and the moment you know them as they were what. or how kind of some of. us long ago that

dog. was the source of the evil the about what we were about because the germ of the softening again if you set out the national public. the sabra and shatila massacres so over two thousand palestinian and lebanese civilians killed i started writing and writing and writing. unfortunately the times didn't come out on sunday so i had to wait for the next day's paper. but i got all the story going to the. news of the eighteenth of september massacres shocked the world and the international coverage angered the israelis and the story that those organizations. the same day they arrested use of and took him to their base at the st george hotel. the journalists became dreaming agri the french

typically french organized a petition. signed petition to get down to the israeli commandos demanding that the use of lazaro be released yes i wasn't surprised he was arrested because they realized this was a communications center and they didn't want it to operate i think the purpose of arresting yourself was to close down the comment of. eight years into the fighting on the night of the thirtieth of august nine hundred eighty three the commodore took a direct hit shattering its eastern side. of the run to a shadowy. middle of the us of. what it feel what the what if is the means of of that some of the huffing agenda or whether you're a lot of bush. knew and inexperienced reporters were sometimes unable to handle beirut. and use of office sometimes doubled as a psychiatric unit. as the israeli withdrawal continued into nine hundred eighty

three lebanese militias immediately filled that vacuum and vied for control region by region. the commodore had continued as an international news home field below our work as a cameraman for c.b.c. and took these photos of life inside the hotel at that time. but in one nine hundred eighty full a new development in the conflict upset that life even mo. kidnapping. the commodore had so i think was beginning to lose its attraction as a journalistic enterprise around the time of the mid one nine hundred eighty s. around the time of the kidnapping. i think the fear of kidnapping started around

eighty four. i have kidnapping on me in mind i'm curious st very close to the comedy. i saw him at that was the first time i started getting really frightened. and then of course not long afterwards terry anderson was kidnapped along with held hostage with seven years and then we all realized we were in trouble. terry anderson was the senior associated press correspondent on the sixteenth of january nine hundred eighty five he was kidnapped on his way to the commodore hotel. three years into his detention his kidnappers released this photo of him wearing a commodore hotel t. shirt designed by use of for his journalist guests. anderson was the first journalist to be kidnapped in beirut but would be the last to be released in one thousand nine hundred ninety one. several different groups carried out the hostage taking but the most prominent was islamic jihad and i wouldn't advise

any foreigners to stay here at the moment was atrocious order in november one thousand nine hundred five which the special envoy to the british archbishop of canterbury terry waite arrived in lebannon to negotiate hostage releases he stayed at the riviera hotel but often went to the commodore to meet journalists. on the twenty first of november fighting known as the battle of the flag between different leftwing allied lebanese militias controlling west beirut reached the commodore hotel. terry waite was trapped inside with dozens of local and foreign journalists including ransey haidar.

but for. me. ramsey hyde of photographs these images of journalists pulling the man's body out of sniper range then moving it into the back of a car. that image encapsulates the horror of events outside the commodore hotel. that night terry waite stayed at the commodore and these rare pictures show him making phone calls in the hotel lobby

negotiations for the release of hostages had so far failed and the kidnapping continued. on the sixteenth of march nine hundred eighty six the british journalist john mccarthy arrived in beirut as w t n bureau chief it was his first assignment to a war zone. he checked into the commodore opposite w t ends office is excited to be staying at the now legendary hotel i think that had a rather a mental view of what the commodore would be like. i had heard from other colleagues had been there and stayed there and was very aware that it was a famous hotel where all the great journalists stayed. so when i got there i was surprised because it was nearly empty. the street fighting and fear of kidnap

drove many foreigners out of west beirut to the christian east side or out of lebanon to neighboring cyprus. so i was told you must be careful if you know you'll be a target possibly for one of these kidnapped groups so stay close to the office. in the howard district and stay close to the hotel the commodore. by april nine hundred eighty six thirty foreign nationals have been kidnapped in lebanon it didn't occur to john mcafee that he might be next it seemed like an era for this hotel for lebanon for the foreign journalists working it was coming to an end it was closing in around around me but also it felt as if the hotel was sort of closing down to. mccarthy was then ordered by his w t n bosses in london to leave beirut immediately. on the seventeenth of april nine

hundred eighty six he checked out of the commodore and headed for the airport. but within minutes armed men intercepted his car grabbed him and took him away. john mccarthy would be the last foreign journalist to stay at the commodore. so it's extraordinary i started off that morning in april six leaving this rather ground if dilapidated suite at the commodore hotel and then the next room i was in was underground in a tiny filthy dirty prison cell basically as a hostage and i was to remain a hostage for the next five and a quarter years. nine months after mccarthy's abduction on the seventeenth of january nine hundred eighty seven hostage negotiator terry waite was also kidnapped . he was last seen on the beirut corniche surrounded by government from the druze progressive socialist party who were acting as his bodyguards in my last year of

captivity i was held with the two americans terry anderson and tom sutherland and also with the. englishman terry waite who'd gone out to lebanon to try and negotiate our release a few years earlier but himself being kidnapped was very strange that there we were in a cell with the guy who'd tried to rescue us and he'd ended up being a hostage to. within hours of terry waite abduction a fierce battle ensued in west beirut two hundred people died in the five days fighting. and the commodore was almost completely destroyed by fire. and there was another kidnap the victim this time koko the parrot. hotel manager our maid should borrow checked on the staff and damage the next day. he contacted the owner use of his old who was abroad to reassure him the star for ok

but that the hotel was so damaged it was now uninhabitable. or they wind. up with. bob how early. arlen. in two thousand and two a new investor bought the commodore it was completely refurbished and revived as a five star luxury hotel in the heart of beirut. american journalist nicholas touch wrote perhaps best summed it up when he wrote during the israeli siege of beirut in a city of survivors the commodore hotel has proven itself to be a survivor with a touch of class. there is no conflict which is simple

goodies versus baddies it's always more complicated than that. and i'd add one more thing find a good safe to tell. business updates. places together.

business updates. going places together. to.

work from the. responsibility. for the weeks of unrest over his fuel tax increase. also ahead banned from school times and you know forces pregnant girls to choose between an education and their unborn child. i'm with all your sports bring james and his old teammates join white mates for the last time after sixteen years together in the n.b.a. that's coming up later this news hour. ok let's get going to resume is trying to win last minute concessions from e.u.

leaders to save deal today she's meeting the dutch prime minister mark ruta in the hague before talks in berlin with the german chancellor angela merkel now this all comes as the european commission president said on monday there is absolutely quotes no room whatsoever for renegotiation. the deal we have achieved is the best possible it's only the course and so we can look. there is no room whatsoever for the negotiation but of course to this room if used intelligently is room enough to give further clarification and further interpretations we vote openly do we have to all agree to this really not happen everyone has to know that the really really really not. meanwhile the u.k. parliament to show jewel to hold an emergency debate after the prime minister

perspire own to vote by m.p.'s on her widely unpopular plan to leave the e.u. in march of next year is a quick reminder of the major the big breaks it dates and facts so far now the british people voted by a margin of fifty two to forty eight percent to leave the european union in the referendum on june the twenty third twenty sixteen in march of the following year prime minister may trigger what's called article fifty which began the u.k.'s official withdrawal process and negotiations after twenty months of talks european leaders approved britain's divorce deal however the agreement is deeply unpopular up and down the country on monday the highest court in the e.u. rules that britain can unilaterally cancel brix it but prime minister may still insist the country will leave the block on march the twenty ninth next year as the twenty sixteen referendum expressed the democratic will of the people we have two correspondents covering the story join a whole is outside the parliament in london for us we'll speak to him in just

a moment first let's go to brussels and our correspondent dominic kane dominic beyond empathy beyond kind words today what can she realistically get. cold hard reality peter which is that this is the one deal that is acceptable to the european union frankly it's the one deal that's unacceptable it seems to the british parliament the point here is that hearing mr younkers say those comments in the european parliament the applause that he got from your m.p.'s is mirrored to a large extent by european leaders to certainly by anger merkel when prime minister may meets chancellor merkel in berlin it will be a very friendly meeting but the substance of it is that angle americal has publicly said that there will be no other deal than this one so we end up in a situation where the reason may is making this last ditch as it were tour around

european capitals trying to seek a form of words that might placate people back in london but she must know that it's very unlikely that they'll be any realistic movement any movement that might be acceptable to the people that matter in this situation which of the people in the u.k. parliament meeting we stood in the hague this morning well the dutch prime minister is someone who is seen as being if not necessarily outright euro skeptic certainly who's not in favor of any more deeper european union as it were but what can he really give her nothing particularly the same with angela merkel and as we've been hearing from mr young that is very unlikely that that we nothing from him he will be meeting her at eighteen fifteen g.m.t. so this evening meeting her here in brussels but as i say the reality is it's a cold hard reality no change from brussels which means the onus is back on juries and made to try to find a form of words that will be acceptable in london dominic thanks very much line to

london and our correspondent john a whole sojourner there's the emergency debate today there's no vote but the votes in theory could still take place at a later date. could take place one assumes free to will take place at a later date the question of course is when there is some suggestion that an answer deadline in terms of legislation already passed through the house of commons behind me is the twenty first of january it's unclear whether that it's hard and fast. to reason may is going to come back she'll be in brussels presumably for the e.u. summit meeting on thursday and friday and then she will have to show her cards to her m.p.'s here probably cabinet first in terms of what it is she's been able to secure and whether she decides that there is still yet more time or more room for talk between between the summit and the eventual vote we simply don't know at this

point nobody in westminster has any idea even quite what it is she's hoping to achieve by all of this will there be a vote almost inevitably will it be sufficient the deal that she returns to flak eight m.p.'s in her own party and in the house to get them to vote for this deal very hard to see how on earth that is possible because an awful lot of them don't forget really want to see the back of this backstop they want no more to do with the backstop they're not interested in reassurances they simply don't want it to exist they see it as a constitutional trap they see it as the u.k. taking e.u. rules without any say in making them they see it is as limiting this country's ability to strike trade deals outside of the european union it's very hard to see how to resume a comes back from this journey thanks very much ok let's get more on the for you mt gun it is a senior lecturer in british politics at lancaster university he joins us live from lancaster mark on it if she goes to europe that's where she is today she comes back

with nothing which we think that's what she'll probably come back with because there's a not much of a difference between guarantees and assurances and they've said we're not going to give you any more than you've got already on the table she still has to have the vote which she will still lose. yes and i don't think that you have to really go back to nine hundred thirty eight and neville chamberlain was attempts to get to deal with germany. flying over to germany repeatedly you have to go back that far really to see a prime minister in a more difficult situation in fact you might say that this is mazen and even more difficult situation she's caught between institutions with incompatible demands and everywhere you look inside the british house of commons you see reasons why she will not get a compromise deal through and people are speculating this morning that the vote when it comes might be delayed until january if it is still late that long because

of course parliamentarians have got to have their christmas recess does that make it crashing out or a no deal breaks it more likely. the mrs may is presenting to parliament a choice really between this deal and no deal she's trying to rule out the possibility of no breaks it and so certainly less the house of commons can come in behind a different plan which is acceptable to the e.u. then it makes the no deal scenario more likely at the same time in fact it does probably make it slightly more likely that there will be no brett said or that there will be a referendum this is such a difficult situation and the trouble is that these are the people in parliament have got their different reasons for rejecting this deal and so this is may try to satisfy one group of people she'll annoy another group of people and so again the.

she's obviously tried very hard to delay things as long as possible in the hope that there would be some kind of consensus in the country and in parliament but really i think we were almost back where we were on the day after the referendum with a lot of people with different agendas who will not go for the kind of compromise that mrs may in the e.u. would like but the longer the british parliament stays deadlocked and we saw that fi breillat miss fear in play when she was on her feet for what more than an hour and a half yesterday does that make the chance of another referendum more likely not less likely. yes i think it does make the that outcome more likely but again mrs may has self as adamantly ruled out a second referendum and the argument against the second referendum is that the country is bitterly divided now and another referendum will merely make it raise the temperature even further the option that seems to be fading is the one which is

being warmly supported by your opinion the polarized options no deal or no breath set options and both becoming more likely but again the way in which we can get from here to there is i suppose one might say that there are still people who would hope that britain would withdraw the article fifty application for leaving the european union but even that is just going to raise the temperature of debate so this is the kind of situation the other possibility is that mrs may will be removed as prime minister but that would only leave whoever succeeds with the exactly the same problem so really all the options look unattractive and really at the moment also parliament does seem to still be wanting to engage in party politics in an issue which is of overriding national importance the labor party would like

a general election there are some people in the conservative party who really are trying to obstruct the deal at all costs and so this is making the british people more and more i think fed up more and more alienated from the political classes so we have a full blown political crisis we in fact you might say are in a position where given that the prime minister is a person who can command a majority in the house of commons you might almost say that britain is looking at the possibility of effectively being without a government without a government that can do any business at all so this is unprecedented me territory and mrs make continues to try and find a way through it but one can only wish a good look big. is as things go on the problems actually get worse rather than better ok on that idea of a leadership challenge some skeptics are saying boris johnson the co architect of bricks it former foreign secretary he's had a haircut so that means he's up to something some place he's thinking about going and become prime minister but the reality is.